Cheetohs of Mass Destruction

Kevin Drum has a nice rundown of the Bush administration's incredible shrinking claims about Iraq's alleged weapons and the lack thereof:

March 2003: Weapons of mass destruction.

June 2003: Weapons of mass destruction programs.

October 2003: Weapons of mass destruction-related programs.

January 2004: Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities.

I've mentioned this before, but this reminds me of the Cheetoh-factor, in which every additional adjective makes the noun in question less true:

"Cheese" = cheese

"processed cheese" = cheese, sort of

"processed cheese food" = cheese, sort of, plus other stuff that's not cheese

"processed cheese food snack product" = the food in question is orange, but contains no actual cheese.

Comments

[Evan]

Just to complete the cheetoh hierarchy for you, I once found for sale, and purchased, a product labelled "pasteurized process loaf". When I tried to melt some in the microwave, it bubbled for a moment and then solidified into something with the texture of pumice.

I'm not sure if the WMD hunt has reached the "loaf" stage yet, but it's obviously getting very, very close.

[charles]

From a George Carlin Skit:

After World War One, soldiers returned from the trenches with "shell shock."

After World War Two, they were said to suffer from "battle fatigue."

Veterans of the Korean War: "operational exhaustion."

Veterans of Vietnam were diagnosed with "post-traumatic stress disorder."

[anon]

Anybody ever had authentic style chinese food from a grocery store? Same thing.

"Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities."

In the immortal words of Jon Stewart, "What the f--k is that?!?! Catering for the scientists?!?!?"

http://www.fritolay.com/nutrition/

[Todd Johnson]

Nice blog, I'm linking you.

[JACK]

Who cares,thingings are going great in the Middle East,democracry is spreading!!Liberal loser!!

[Mike]

They did have the programs for the weapons,maybe it would be better if they had bio weapons and killed 10,000 of our soliders.Idiot.

[bellatrys]

Um, Mike, they had instructions, that's *not* the same as making them. Do I get to kill you first because you have a copy of Guns & Ammo in your desk and might therefore shoot me?

And here's a trick question: who gave them bioweapons back in the day, huh?

JACK, if that's not a parody of an illiterate freeper - then I feel sorry for you.

[R. Mildred]

I'm quite convinced that some winger computer geek has invented an automatic blog trolling chatbot of some kind